Mothers and Sons: Preference Transmission and Female Labor Force Dynamics
نویسندگان
چکیده
This paper suggests that a signi...cant factor explaining the increase in female labor force participation over time was the growing presence of a new type of man. This man was brought up with a di¤erent family model–one in which his mother worked. A working mother either in‡uenced her son’s preferences for a working wife or directly made him a better partner for a working woman. The increase in the proportion of these men over time encouraged women to invest more in market skills and to participate in market work. We develop a simple dynamic model that illustrates this idea. We present extensive crosssectional evidence showing that men with working mothers are signi...cantly more likely to have wives who work, even after controlling for many features of both spouses. In support of the dynamic implications of our theory, we present intergenerational evidence that uses di¤erences in mobilization rates of men across states during WWII as a source of exogenous variation in female labor supply. We show, in particular, that higher WWII male mobilization rates led to a higher fraction of women working not only for the generation directly a¤ected by the war, but also for the next generation. These women were young enough to pro...t from the changed composition in the pool of men (i.e., from the fact that WWII created more men with mothers who worked). We also show that states in which the ratio of the average fertility of working relative to non-working women is greatest, have higher female labor supply twenty years later. JEL Nos.: J12, Z10, D19.
منابع مشابه
Maternal Gender Role Attitudes, Human Capital Investment, and Labour Supply of Sons and Daughters
Maternal Gender Role Attitudes, Human Capital Investment, and Labour Supply of Sons and Daughters Using data from the 1970 British Cohort Study, we investigate the role of maternal gender role attitudes in explaining the differential educational expectations mothers have for their daughters and sons, and consequently their children’s later educational outcomes and labour supply. We find that mo...
متن کاملTitle of dissertation : WOMEN ’ S LABOR SUPPLY AND THE FAMILY Melinda Sandler
Title of dissertation: WOMEN’S LABOR SUPPLY AND THE FAMILY Melinda Sandler Morrill, Doctor of Philosophy, 2008 Dissertation directed by: Professor Judith K. Hellerstein Department of Economics The past century has seen a tremendous rise in female labor force participation. My dissertation addresses aspects of how the American family has shaped and has been shaped by rising levels of female labo...
متن کاملEstimation and Analysis of Gender-Specific Labor Demand Functions in Iran
Despite the low participation rate of women in the labor market, the unemployment rate of women has increased significantly and has exceeded the unemployment rate of men in the last three decades. This paper focuses on the factors which affect labor demand considering gender using the data for the period 1986-2017. Based on the Multiple-Equation Generalized Method of Moments estimator, the resu...
متن کاملMaternal labor force participation and differences by education in an urban birth cohort study - 1998-2010.
BACKGROUND Maternal labor force participation has increased dramatically over the last 40 years, yet surprisingly little is known about longitudinal patterns of maternal labor force participation in the years after a birth, or how these patterns vary by education. OBJECTIVE We document variation by maternal education in mothers' labor force participation (timing, intensity, non-standard work,...
متن کاملذخیره در منابع من
با ذخیره ی این منبع در منابع من، دسترسی به آن را برای استفاده های بعدی آسان تر کنید
عنوان ژورنال:
دوره شماره
صفحات -
تاریخ انتشار 2003